LAEC, Longmont negotiate consolidation

LONGMONT – The goal: Consolidate city of Longmont and Longmont Area Economic Council economic development efforts to save money and be more efficient.

How to get there: Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate.

Representatives from the city and from the LAEC are still “in the early days” of figuring out how to move city programs on small-business economic development and entrepreneurship over to the LAEC, said Shawn Lewis, Longmont’s assistant city manager. The LAEC is a public-private partnership that currently receives about half of its funding from the city – $180,000 this year – with the rest coming from private companies. The LAEC primarily has…